


Chasing Serenity

by chaoticrandomness



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom
Genre: 999 Spoilers, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 04:39:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4733081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticrandomness/pseuds/chaoticrandomness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In all of the universes, there's one where everyone's happy. Or, Junpei, Akane, and growing up and falling in love. </p><p>Written for days 5 and 6 of 999 week.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chasing Serenity

There are universes where the games continue and universes where everyone dies and universes where the world ends. 

 

But there're also universes where her brother never finds that flyer and universes where she just tears it to bits and universes where she falls in love with Junpei.

 

* * *

 

"....Cradle Pharmaceutical has been dismantled after the arrest of four members of their higher-ups. Hongou Gentarou, Nijisaki Nagisa, Kubota Teruaki, and Musashidou Kagechika were discovered with the bodies of sixteen children by Detective Seven, and..." 

 

The television's been showing a lot of depressing news lately. After the rabbits died, it's almost like the world wants to make her the saddest person alive. The fact that she's stuck in bed with a high fever doesn't help, for the only thing she wants to do is see her best friend and her big brother. 

 

Yet, strangely enough, the depressing news is making her just a little bit happier. 

 

_What does the arrest of some child kidnappers and some guy named Brother and a guy creating a virus have to do with me? I mean, I'm glad that all of these bad people aren't going to hurt anyone like those older kids hurt the rabbits, but..._

 

(She doesn't know that the world is not going to end in 2028 this time.) 

 

"Akane, I'm back. I guess I should be glad that I sold all those stocks?" her brother quips as he walks into their living room with a doll and a stuffed rabbit. 

 

She doesn't answer him, and he switches the TV to something more appropriate for little girls as he passes her the doll and she wonders why everything feels weird. 

 

_This hasn't happened to me before, has it?_

 

(Yes. No. Maybe.) 

 

* * *

 

 

"Jumpy, thanks for the doll." she says as she goes back to school. Her fever broke right after her brother gave it to her, so it's got to be some sort of magical good-luck charm, right? 

 

_Wait, how do I know that he made it for me?_

 

(You know because  _I_ know, Akane. I am you.) 

 

"Thanks. There's a lot of stuff you missed, Kanny. Do you want me to help you?" he asks, gesturing towards the massive pile of papers on her desk. 

 

"No, I'm fine. Do you want to come over?" she asks in return, and notices that there's a photo of another rabbit hutch right on top of the pile. 

 

"Our class built that one after what happened with the last one, and we got some new rabbits as well. Do you want to see them after class, Kanny?" he answers, before the two of them begin to plan out how to best get through the massive pile of work and the rest of the day. 

 

* * *

 

 

Her brother and Junpei actually get along surprisingly well, and the three of them spend most of their time after going through their pile of work playing Monopoly and trying to explain to Aoi why she should get a rabbit. 

 

As if to counter their rabbit stories, her brother starts joking about her marrying Junpei in ten years. Strangely enough, a little part of her wants that to happen. 

 

_It's not that weird. I mean, we're friends and people who get along well get married._

 

_And I still would like a rabbit, Aoi. I'll pay for everything._

 

Junpei starts showing up at her house every week, and Wednesdays are devoted to Monopoly and friendship and rabbit stories. Her brother then decided to ban them from talking about rabbits during exams, and Junpei retaliates by banning him from talking about anything that's not a rabbit. 

 

_Thank you, Jumpy. I don't mind the marriage one, but everything else?_

* * *

 

 

She and Junpei both score well on their exams, and both decide to go onto a school that focuses on science. 

 

_It's such a beautiful world around us with so many interesting things to discover, right?_

 

(The school is not going to tell her that the morphogenetic field actually exists. But none of that's relevant to her.) 

 

"Are you excited, Junpei?" she asks the day before they're heading off to high school. It's a Wednesday, so he's at her house annihilating her brother at chess while she reads over the syllabus and feels like there's something missing. 

 

(Radical-6 will never exist. Neither will the antimatter bombs and everything Cradle Pharmaceutical made. She won't have to kidnap people while wearing a gas mask and send them to Nevada to save her own life, and no one's going to the moon.)

 

He mumbles something that she can't hear, before Aoi surrenders at chess and flips his king over.

 

_"...interesting, but closer to you?"_

 

_Is something wrong, Junpei? Do you want me to help you?_

 

Before she can ponder this train of thought any further, her brother challenges her to chess, thinking that she'll be easier to defeat than her best friend. 

 

She beats him in four moves, and plays another three games against Junpei before he goes back to his house and he falls asleep.

 

* * *

 

The world is filled with atoms and new discoveries and strangely beautiful things, and she comes away from her first week of classes completely exhilarated. Junpei starts spending more time in her house and she helps him with everything, until it gets to the point where he's basically another member of the Kurashiki family. 

 

"Why do you spend so much time here?" she asks once. He doesn't answer, and changes the subject to Fibonacci rabbits.

 

The two of them go through school together and grow into adolescence and adulthood together and learn about how beautiful the world is together. She keeps his doll in her pencil case, and brings it to all of her tests and quizzes.

 

_It's a good-luck charm, Junpei. Should I make one for you? I've never been good at art, but I'll try..._

 

Her brother signs her up for jewelry-making classes and she learns how to weld metal into the shape of rings and bracelets and numbers. The first thing she makes is a little silver ring with the number 5 on it, and decides to give it to Junpei. 

 

_Why, though? Five isn't a lucky number, I don't know if he likes that number, and it's not an important one in his life and you don't give guys jewelry..._

 

(Five was the number of his bracelet. But she doesn't know anything about that, and I'm grateful.) 

 

She gives him the ring at her house the day before their final exams, and he blushes while her brother starts joking about marriage. Again. 

 

"Do you want me to make something for you, Akane?" he asks. 

 

_You already made something for me, Junpei. You gave me a good-luck charm._

 

* * *

 

 

She wants to study quantum physics. She doesn't know why, but it just feels like the best fit for a girl who wants to understand everything about this beautiful world. Junpei is debating over the list of future fields of study, and decides to go into the same one as her. 

 

_I told you to pin the list of classes to the wall and throw darts at it, but I thought you'd lump that in with my brother's comments on how we should get married._

 

"You don't have to follow me around, Junpei." she says, for it feels like he's just an extension of her sometimes, but maybe that's normal with close friends who basically live together and are pretty close to... 

 

"Have I been stalking you, Akane? I just thought that it sounded kind of nostalgic to study that, for some reason..." he responds. 

 

 _So you were a scientist in your past life, Junpei? And what_ _was I? Did I love you..._

 

(Yes and yes. I don't want to tell her the second question's answer.) 

 

"No, but I don't mind being with you and I hope we'll enjoy this." she says, as he slips another ring onto her finger. It looks exactly like the one she made, except there's a zero in the middle of it. 

 

_You really didn't have to do this, Junpei. You already gave me the doll all those years ago..._

 

"I wanted to make something for you, Akane. Thank you for existing." he says.

 

"If we're thanking each other for things, thank you for making me that doll." she says. 

 

"You still have that, Kanny?!" he exclaims. 

 

_Yes. Why would I throw out my good-luck charm?_

 

She's about to say something when her brother walks through the front door, and she doesn't want him to hear this. 

 

_I'll tell you more tomorrow, Junpei. I'll tell you everything tomorrow..._

 

* * *

 

In the grand scheme of things, a pair of rings, a doll, and a friendship blossoming to love are not very important.  _  
_

But in the scheme of a single person's life, they're extraordinary. 

 

 

 

 


End file.
